Jakarta (ANTARA) - President Joko Widodo has reiterated his commitment to encouraging the switch from fossil energy to new and renewable energy in Indonesia.
“Ladies and gentlemen, lastly, once again I firmly commit myself to leave fossil energy and switch to new and renewable energy,” he remarked while inaugurating PT Jhonlin Agro Raya’s biodiesel plant in Tanah Bumbu District, South Kalimantan, on Thursday.
Indonesia will produce and distribute 9.2 million kiloliters of biodiesel in 2021, the head of the state projected. “I want the production to increase next year,” he added in his speech, which was streamed on the Presidential Secretariat’s Youtube channel.
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He lauded PT Jhonlin Group for building a biodiesel plant to industrialize the processing of crude palm oil (CPO) to biodiesel in order to get added value.
“We hope other companies to start turning CPO into cooking oil, cosmetics, semi-finished goods, and finished goods,” he said.
Indonesia is by far the world’s largest biodiesel producer, with a daily output of 137 thousand barrels, which is well above that of the United States, Brazil, and Germany, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, said recently.
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Biodiesel is a biofuel comprising a mixture of methyl ester compounds of long-chain fatty acids. It is used as an alternative fuel in diesel engines.
Indonesia uses CPO as the main raw material for producing biodiesel. It chose palm oil because its cultivators are well-established and considering its position as the second-largest producer of palm oil in the world, Hartarto explained.
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